School districts in Iowa
70% of the 969 populated ZIP Code areas in Iowa are served by more than one school district — 678 of them, which puts the state 11th among the fifty-two. It is organized into 325 unified districts, the largest being Des Moines Independent Community at 95,020 homes. Its most divided ZIP Code area, 52352, is split between 6 districts for elementary grades alone. The two districts that share the most ZIP Codes here are Southeast Valley Community and Manson Northwest Webster Community, in 5 of them. Counted by homes rather than by ZIP Code area, 74% of the state's housing sits in a ZIP Code that more than one district serves.
How many school districts are in Iowa?
325: the Census boundary file draws 325 school districts in Iowa that reach at least one ZIP Code area with homes, 325 unified, 0 elementary and 0 secondary. A ZIP Code here can sit in more than one of them, which is why a school district lookup by ZIP Code for Iowa lists them all: find your school district by ZIP code.
How often a ZIP Code here crosses a district line
The state sits well above the national rate: 70% of its ZIP Code areas cross a district line against 53% across the country. With 325 districts over 969 populated ZIP Code areas, every extra district is another line to cross.
- ZIP Code areas with a district969
- Served by more than one district678 (70%)
- Grade school and high school differ0 (0%)
- No high school district named0
- Unified districts325
- Elementary districts0
- Secondary districts0
- Homes in no district at all0
District pages for Iowa, largest first
Ranked by the homes inside their boundaries: Waukee Community leads at 27,767, then Cedar Falls Community at 17,622 and Linn-Mar Community at 17,518. Only districts with a page here are listed; 318 more in the state have none.
- Waukee Community School District27,767 homes · 9 ZIP areas
- Cedar Falls Community School District17,622 homes · 4 ZIP areas
- Linn-Mar Community School District17,518 homes · 7 ZIP areas
- Southeast Polk Community School District15,953 homes · 8 ZIP areas
- Marshalltown Community School District12,533 homes · 6 ZIP areas
- Dallas Center-Grimes Community School District6,055 homes · 8 ZIP areas
- Norwalk Community School District5,954 homes · 7 ZIP areas
The most divided ZIP Code area in Iowa
ZIP Code area 52352 holds 783 homes and 6 districts take a real share of them for the early grades, but North Linn Community holds 82% on its own at that level. This is the shape that makes a single-name lookup look right: it names North Linn Community and describes most of the homes here, and silently not the rest.
Each percentage here is a share of the 783 homes counted in ZIP Code 52352, not the chance that any one address is in that district. Enrollment follows the street: two houses on opposite sides of the same road can be in different districts, and only the district office can say which.
Every track below is 35 cells long and stands for all 783 homes counted in ZIP Code 52352, so one cell is 22 homes, rounded to the nearest whole cell. Cells lit solid are the homes one district holds, and the unlit cells are the homes held by the other districts in the same list.
- North Linn Community School District644 of 783 homes82%
- Center Point-Urbana Community School District90 of 783 homes11%
- Alburnett Community School District18 of 783 homes2.3%
- Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District14 of 783 homes1.8%
- Independence Community School District13 of 783 homes1.7%
- East Buchanan Community School District4 of 783 homes0.5%
For grade school, an answer of one district name would be wrong for 139 of the 783 here.
How much of Iowa a single district name misses
Across the 969 ZIP Code areas in Iowa with homes in them, an answer of one district name misses 117,604 of the 1,413,144 homes they hold — 8.3% of the state. In 237 of those areas the largest district for the early grades holds every home counted; in the other 732 it leaves some out. That is a different count from the 678 areas served by more than one district: it also counts districts under half a percent of the homes and homes in no district, and it does not count a high school district that differs.
In ZIP Code 52722 · Bettendorf, Iowa the largest district for grade school is Bettendorf Community, and naming it alone misses 8,194 of the 17,294 homes counted there. For grade school the rest is 8,117 homes with Pleasant Valley Community and 77 homes in districts too small to name here.
In ZIP Code 52404 · Cedar Rapids, Iowa the largest district for grade school is Cedar Rapids Community, and naming it alone misses 7,527 of the 19,788 homes counted there. For grade school the rest is 7,527 homes with College Community.
In ZIP Code 50266 · West Des Moines, Iowa the largest district for grade school is Waukee Community, and naming it alone misses 6,616 of the 17,636 homes counted there. For grade school the rest is 6,616 homes with West Des Moines Community.
Where a ZIP Code here names more than one district
Of the 969 ZIP Code areas in Iowa that the federal file names a district for, 678 name more than one school district. These are the 12 with the most, starting at 6 districts in one postal area: Walker, Columbus Junction and Adel. Each row opens the full answer for that ZIP Code, with every district named for grade school and for high school and the share of the homes each one holds.
- ZIP Code 52352 · Walker, Iowa6 districts · 783 homes
- ZIP Code 52738 · Columbus Junction, Iowa6 districts · 1,396 homes
- ZIP Code 50003 · Adel, Iowa5 districts · 3,642 homes
- ZIP Code 50036 · Boone, Iowa5 districts · 7,517 homes
- ZIP Code 50138 · Knoxville, Iowa5 districts · 5,182 homes
- ZIP Code 50156 · Madrid, Iowa5 districts · 1,949 homes
- ZIP Code 50206 · New Providence, Iowa5 districts · 215 homes
- ZIP Code 50515 · Ayrshire, Iowa5 districts · 155 homes
- ZIP Code 50606 · Arlington, Iowa5 districts · 393 homes
- ZIP Code 50613 · Cedar Falls, Iowa5 districts · 18,168 homes
- ZIP Code 50636 · Greene, Iowa5 districts · 898 homes
- ZIP Code 50677 · Waverly, Iowa5 districts · 5,193 homes
What to do next
Ask the district office to confirm your street address: look on its site for a school locator, a find my school tool or an attendance zone map, or call the office.
A ZIP Code is a set of mail delivery routes, not a boundary: 678 of the 969 ZIP Code areas in Iowa with a district named for them are served by more than one school district, and the line between two of them runs along streets. Only the district can say which side of that line an address is on.
District websites and phone numbers here come from the NCES Common Core of Data directory, 2024-25 school year, filed under the same district ID as the Census boundary files. Where it lists no usable website, none is printed rather than guessed.
If a house purchase depends on the answer, ask the district itself for written confirmation of that exact address. A listing is not a district record, and neither is this page.
Where these numbers come from
The homes were counted in the 2020 Census and the district lines are the 2026 boundary file, so a fast-growing area may have changed since; ZIP Codes here are the Census Bureau's ZIP Code Tabulation Areas; a share is a share of homes, not the chance that one address is in a district; and a district is not a school attendance zone. Every source, file and caveat is on the method page.